Police say total 29 dead in Rio drug violence

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RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Police killed three suspected drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, bringing to 29 the total number of deaths since the city’s worst recent outbreak of violence erupted over the weekend.

A man suspected of being a member of a drug gang is arrested by police officers in the Cruzeiro slum in Rio de Janeiro October 21, 2009. The violence left parts of the city resembling a war zone only two weeks after Rio was awarded the 2016 Olympics following a slick campaign that downplayed security problems and portrayed a joyful city of beaches and Carnival. Rio, which will also host matches during the 2014 World Cup, beat out competition from Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid to become the first South American city to host the games. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

The three suspects were killed after they opened fire on police who were searching a slum in the city’s north for gang members linked to shooting down a police helicopter on Saturday, police spokesman Oderlei Santos said.

State authorities have mobilized several thousand police to secure the city and search for drug traffickers who caused the helicopter to crash, killing three police officers.

Twenty-three suspected gang members and three residents caught in cross-fire between gangs have been killed since Saturday in violence that has tarnished Rio’s image only a few weeks after it was awarded the 2016 Olympics.

The image of a dead suspected trafficker stuffed into a shopping cart and left on a road was carried by Brazilian and international newspapers on Wednesday, an example of the extreme gang violence and a sharp contrast to the scenes of joy on Copacabana beach that were broadcast around the world this month when Rio won the Olympics.

Santos said other police operations were being carried out across the city of six million people on Wednesday. There was at least one resulting gun battle between police and armed men.

Residents in one slum near where the helicopter went down left their homes on Tuesday night and were afraid to return because of rumors that a gang from another slum was planning an invasion.

“Everyone is afraid of going back to their homes, it’s better to stay on the street,” one male resident who asked not to be identified told reporters.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has offered Rio state nearly $60 million over six months to help combat the violence.

Rio’s police often respond brutally to drug gangs, wounding and killing innocent residents as a result of tactics that have been consistently condemned by human rights groups.

The police last year killed more than 1,100 suspects described as “resisting arrest.” Residents killed in police raids are routinely labeled as suspected criminals, without investigations to back up the charge.